1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Flash memory and in particular relates to a control method for a storage array of a Flash memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flash memory is a general non-volatile storage device that is electrically erased and programmed
A NAND Flash, for example, is primarily used in memory cards, USB flash devices, solid-state drives, and so on.
A storage array of a NAND Flash comprises a plurality of blocks, and, all cells of an entire block have to be erased at once. To release a used block as a spare block, the entire block has to be erased. “Garbage Collection” is operative to collect valid data distributed over several blocks and, after collecting the valid data, the blocks containing only invalid data can be erased and released as spare blocks.
However, “Garbage Collection” conventionally requires considerable resources for calculation. A method for efficiently operating a Flash memory is called for.